Printable vinyl wholesale cheap directly from China - is it real?

[Fooroogelm]

Hello,
Printable vinyl wholesale cheap directly from China - is it real? Material prices have doubled since the beginning of the year. Strongly "presses" on the cost price. Perhaps someone had experience buying directly from China? No more than 1 pallet? Interested in "promo" quality vinyl, for printing on a latex printer.

Thank you!

 

[Boudica]

You would be asking the supplier members here, and I doubt they are going to share their whole sale sources.

 

[ikarasu]

Goto Alibaba.

To ship a skid it goes by sea. You have to deal with customs yourself, it takes a month... And if there's any quality issues, they'll tell you too bad.

Vendors have more pull.

Is it doable? Yes...I bought some reflective, paid like $200 to ship a box air and then $100 for a roll of reflective... It still came out cheaper than buying from our vendor (it was still cheap reflective garbage, only good for temp signs)

I wouldn't spend 5-10k to bring a whole skid in though. If you have enough work to justify buying a skid of vinyl, paying a bit more to your vendor shouldn't be an issue

 

[zspace]

Don’t know for sure about vinyl. When I looked at bringing in coroplast, shipping costs didn‘t make sense at less than full 40’ containers.

 

[ChicagoGraphics]

These days getting anything from China will take upto 3 months if not longer and the cost for containers is 6 times what it was before covid.

 

[Z SIGNS]

Just charge more for your signs. Problem solved.
The cost of the material should only be a very small fraction of what the sign sells for.

 

[Inks]

Freight/Brokerage/Duties and 12 plus weeks to receive it is a deal breaker in most cases.
Usually 1 skid would mean air shipment. If you order a container load the cost of shipping is 5 X more than it was pre pandemic.
As mentioned earlier, order local and you should not have to pay much more once all the costs are factored in.

 

[balstestrat]

For latex, oh man. Don't cry when you have terrible quality from plasticizer coming up..

 

[Inks]

For latex, oh man. Don't cry when you have terrible quality from plasticizer coming up..

Also edge curl and shrinkage

 

[rjssigns]

Hello,
Printable vinyl wholesale cheap directly from China - is it real? Material prices have doubled since the beginning of the year. Strongly "presses" on the cost price. Perhaps someone had experience buying directly from China? No more than 1 pallet? Interested in "promo" quality vinyl, for printing on a latex printer.

Thank you!

If you're doing that kind of volume press your supplier for a discount. The shop that does all my cut vinyl work gets a huge discount based on their volume.

 

[Modern Ink Signs]

 

[victor bogdanov]

what vinyl are you currently using and how much are you paying, I'm sure someone will be able to recommend a cheaper alternative

 

[Fooroogelm]

what vinyl are you currently using and how much are you paying, I'm sure someone will be able to recommend a cheaper alternative

Previously, vendors had no-name vinyl at CAD$100 for 54 inches x 150 feet. It has now disappeared from sale - and higher quality vinyl has risen in price - with taxes around $300 a roll. And this makes me very upset. Vinyl at $100 a roll was fine for short terms yard signage, etc.

 

[CanuckSigns]

Previously, vendors had no-name vinyl at CAD$100 for 54 inches x 150 feet. It has now disappeared from sale - and higher quality vinyl has risen in price - with taxes around $300 a roll. And this makes me very upset. Vinyl at $100 a roll was fine for short terms yard signage, etc.

I assume you are talking about the GB stuff from allgraphicsupplies? I used to use it but had lots of consistency issues with it. I switched to 510mt from Arlon, it's around $160 a roll but it's great stuff for temporary signs.

Otherwise reach out to BigfishDM he has some very reasonable stuff I've heard, it would ship up from the USA but it might work out less expensive than direct from China.

Edit, I just checked the arlon 510 is about $142 a roll

 

[ikarasu]

Laird had $100 rolls as well. I believe they have $150 rolls now .... Avery brand.


Spicer's has GB vinyl - $125 for 54" or 60" rolls.

It's ok for Coro signs... We use it when someone wants something more glossy than our flatbed.... Don't think I'd use it for anything else though

 

[GC Decor]

Importing vinyl wouldn’t make much sense due to weight if your only buying one pallet, there’s plenty of options for under $175 per roll in the USA and Canada. Orajet has a few options for under $175 per roll, at least you get some support and materials are consistent. We get large discounts when we buy by the pallet, it might not be $100 per roll but we don’t get the headaches.

 

[Fooroogelm]

I assume you are talking about the GB stuff from allgraphicsupplies? I used to use it but had lots of consistency issues with it. I switched to 510mt from Arlon, it's around $160 a roll but it's great stuff for temporary signs.

Otherwise reach out to BigfishDM he has some very reasonable stuff I've heard, it would ship up from the USA but it might work out less expensive than direct from China.

Edit, I just checked the arlon 510 is about $142 a roll

Yes, you are absolutely right - I used GB. But, after the Spicers took over our local supplier, this vinyl disappeared from their inventory. The cheapest I can get right now is $250 (tax included).

 

[Fooroogelm]

Laird had $100 rolls as well. I believe they have $150 rolls now .... Avery brand.


Spicer's has GB vinyl - $125 for 54" or 60" rolls.

It's ok for Coro signs... We use it when someone wants something more glossy than our flatbed.... Don't think I'd use it for anything else though

Budget roll of vinyl for printing, gloss (54"x150) - Avery 3303 $180 / roll
It`s from Laird

 

[CanuckSigns]

Budget roll of vinyl for printing, gloss (54"x150) - Avery 3303 $180 / roll
It`s from Laird

I get the arlon from em plastics, check them out.

The cost of everything has gone up, it's not suprizing the cost of vinyl is on the rise too. Clients seem to be understanding of price increases right now.

 

[hybriddesign]

just be aware that the first time you ship something via ocean freight from China there is a pretty decent chance that there are extra charges (customs broker, random shipping charges especially if you ship “door to door”) that might pop up. If also really depends where you’re located. If you’re by an international port it’s easier but if you need to later truck it inland that’s another fee.

I can’t imagine Vinyl really worth shipping in. I can see banner material since it’s pretty easy to blow through a bit of rolls on a big banner order and the cost of banner scrim is crazy right now.

I bring in a lot of product from overseas but have done it for a long time and have had quite a few oh shit moments where we got charged a crazy fee we weren’t expecting, almost missed filing our ISF paperwork, etc. As other people mentioned you also generally have zero recourse if the vinyl you receive doesn’t work. Generally it’s not that the company shipped you something defective but it’s really easy to accidentally order something that just isn’t really what you expected.